JOHN 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
REFLECTION
Lately, a prayer for peace feels audacious. Violence persists everywhere. Wars overseas, political discourse, mass shootings — even weather reports can erode our sense of security and any hope for peace. While it feels like the violence is at an all-time high, this is nothing new. The world in which Jesus was born was just as violent. There was deep political distrust and intolerance for other “perspectives.” There were economic injustices that fueled riots and led to revolts. There was religious intolerance and ethnic oppression.
Then and now, Advent reminds us that into a violent world, God freely chose to come closer. “The Prince of Peace” didn’t come to make sense of the world’s violence. He didn’t come to “fix” the systems that perpetuate the chaos. He didn’t come to defeat “them” for the sake of “us.” He came to offer more than the absence of violence. He came to offer “shalom:” God’s peace as wholeness, completeness, and divine justice. A subversive seed quietly planted in each one of us with the hope for what the world might become.
This is not a peace that avoids our current experience of violence but rather enables us to move deeper into this chaotic world with the assurance that God is with us. It is a peace that allows for authentic participation in that same fearless movement toward one another. It is the peace born each time we experience how we belong to each another and, through that, live into the image in which we were all created. Maybe the prayer is more audacious than I thought, but our world may very well depend on it.
WRITTEN BY
Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall